As early as 1836, Texans
began driving half wild mustangs into Missouri markets.
About that same time, Texas cattle began filtering north
also. At first cattle came by several hundreds, thereafter
increasing by the thousands annually. The Osage Trace was
the main route used for the movement of cattle to northern
markets, particularly St. Louis. In those days, St. Louis
was as far west as the railroad extended, so it was the
first target of the great cattle drives. Not every drive
took the same path. In search for grass for the cattle, the
drovers generally paralleled where other cattle had grazed
in order to keep weight on cattle. As the railroads extended
further west, Sedalia became an important cattle town and
later, Kansas City took over as Missouri's
"Cowtown".

In 1853 Tom Candy wrote an account
of the cattle drive into Missouri. "We crossed into
Missouri out of the Indian country, near what is now known
as Baxter Springs," he wrote. "I sat on my horse every night
while we were coming through the Indian country; I was so
afraid that something would scare the cattle that I could
not sleep in the tent; but we had no
stampede."

In 1854 there were about fifty
thousand longhorns that had crossed the Red river and were
headed for the northern markets. The Shawnee trail was the
main route to Kansas City, Westport, and Independence. The
Texas settlers called the trail "Texas Road". Sometimes it
was just called the "cattle trail".

By 1856, Missourians along the
borders of Missouri and Kansas noticed that their cattle
were dying of what would be known as the Texas fever. These
farmers were becoming alarmed due to all of the infected
cattle that were crossing their state. These farmers and
cattlemen feared (correctly) these cattle that believed were
the cause of "Texas Fever". The cattle in Missouri and
Kansas had no resistance to the tick.

By 1861 a statewide ban on Texas
cattle was implemented and railroads could not transport
them from one county to another. This would generally end
the great cattle drives, however, some managed to move
cattle into Missouri, but not without paying money (bribes)
to pass. Estimates suggest that 200,000 Texas longhorn
cattle were moved from Texas to Missouri over a twenty-one
year period.

Driving large herds of cattle from
Texas to Missouri was a very hard way to make a living. The
men who tried to bring cattle north often did not make it
and the ones that did seldom tried again.